Zhu Maoyuan Zhang traveled incognito and came to a village. He met an old man in the village and asked him about his birthday. When the old man told Ming Taizu his birth date, it happened to be Ming Taizu's birthday. Ming Taizu asked the old man, "Do you have children?" The old man replied, "No." Ming Taizu asked, "Do you have land?"
The old man replied, "No." Ming Taizu asked, "In that case, how do you support yourself?" The old man replied, "I feed myself by bees." Ming Taizu asked, "How many bees do you have?" The old man replied, "fifteen barrels." Ming Taizu said to himself, "I have Nanking, Peking and thirteen provinces. He keeps fifteen barrels of bees, the same number. My birthday is exactly the same as mine. "
Ming Taizu asked the old man again, "Do you keep bees and sell honey several times a year?" The old man replied, "In spring and summer, when there are many flowers, bees are more likely to collect honey to make honey, so I collect honey every month." After autumn, there are fewer flowers, and chrysanthemum honey can't be harvested. I cut off three-tenths of the honey, leaving 70% for the bees to eat, ensuring that they have food all year round.
I exchange honey harvested in spring and summer for money, cloth, rice and millet, and the income from selling honey determines the expenditure of supporting my family; However, bees also have extra honey. They won't starve to death. The next year, they can make honey again. I have lived to be fifty years old now, and I have survived by these bees. Other beekeepers don't do this. They not only cut honey in spring and summer, but also cut honey in autumn, leaving no honey for bees at all, so bees are dying.